Adventure Abandon
by UltimateDovahkiin
Summary: In a modern AU, the gaang is enjoying the end of summer vacation together. Sokka is eager to show his friends an abandoned part of town when tragedy begins to ensue.
1. 1 - Adventuring

The dried leaves beneath their feet crunched with every step they took. Aang, Katara, Zuko, Toph, and Suki all followed Sokka's lead through a state park, with little idea as to where their end destination was. The sun shone down brightly on them, but not enough to cause humidity, and a few clouds spotted the skies. All in all, for the end of August it was a nice day.

Aang, however was still not happy with their adventure. Sokka had rambled on about some sort of ghost hunting expedition, while Aang would have much rather preferred a safer, less-terrifying game of kickball.

"Guys, I really don't think this is a good idea," Aang said finally, quickening his pace to catch up to Katara.

"You said the same thing about the lake, and you ended up having a great time," Sokka said, shutting down his comment.

"For the record, _I_ did not have fun," Toph said.

"This is probably illegal, what if we get caught?" Zuko spoke up. "I think I'm going to side with Aang on this one."

Sokka groaned and brought his fast-paced strides to a halt. "Listen, all the gut-less babies can stay behind with the whine-lord and the peace maker, everyone else can come with me."

"Sokka, I really don't see why we can't just stay home like we usually do and eat snacks all day. You love eating snacks!" Katara offered.

Sokka sighed and Suki patted his back. "Maybe they're right, let's just go home," she said.

"So you're taking their side with this?" Sokka exclaimed.

Suki smiled bashfully and shrugged.

"Listen everyone, I've been thinking about this for a while. Zuko's off to school in a week, and this is the only day he has off work. Once the school year starts up again, Aang won't have any free time with all his wishy-washy extra-curricular activities; and Toph has to go away to her school like Zuko! This is the last chance we may have to all be together until winter break or maybe next summer; a whole year. I don't want to spend another lame day inside doing nothing!"

Everyone was silent.

"But why here? Why can't we go to the park or something?" Zuko asked.

"Hey dummy, we _are_ in a park. But I already looked this morning at the other one, looks like some kid's birthday party. I don't want to babysit," Sokka said, folding his arms.

"Well your logic isn't deniable, but can I get a run over of what exactly we're doing again?" Aang asked.

Sokka groaned dramatically, "If I must." He took a deep breath and straightened his back. "Back there about a mile," he pointed to the woods behind his back, "is an abandoned part of town. There's a cemetery that dates back as early as the 1700's! That's unheard of anymore! And they've got some buildings back there too, not as old but still just as awesome! I thought we could just take a peek at that stuff for ourselves; see why it's abandoned in the first place."

"So...breaking and entering." Zuko gave Sokka an exasperated look. "Yep, illegal. Called it."

"It's not illegal, no one's there!"

Zuko was about to retort when Suki placed a hand on Sokka's shoulder and locked eyes with Zuko. "I think it sounds like a fun time. Besides, Aang even said so, his logic isn't deniable."

"Ha! See! Suki is the only one with sense around here!" Sokka said, gesturing to Suki with exaggerated arm movements.

Katara giggled. "You just admitted it yourself, you have no sense." Aang chuckled and gave her a high-five.

"Hey!" Toph called out. Everyone's attention was quickly cast to her. "Listen, I love standing around rambling pointlessly, but Sokka's plan sounds way cool. Count me in, Butthead!" She threw an excited fist in the air.

Katara sighed and turned to her brother. "I'm not about to let you get hurt, count me in."

Aang looked at Katara, and then at Sokka. "I'm in," he said.

Everyone turned to Zuko. He cast them all disgusted looks, and then face-palmed. "I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"Glad you came to your senses!" Toph said, elbowing him in the gut. He doubled over and felt as if he were going to throw up. "Onwards...again!" she exclaimed.

And so the gang followed Sokka's lead at the command of Toph. They joked and played as they marched through the woods. Aang couldn't help but notice the foliage grow thinner and thinner as they continued, and the air grew quieter with an absence of song birds and insects. He cast these thoughts to the back of his mind and joined in with his friends in their merry-making.

After about half an hour's worth of marching through what looked like the same scene of trees, bushes, and other assorted undergrowth repeated endlessly-Katara finally pointed out something of interest. "Sokka, that sign says "private property." Do you realize what you're doing?" she asked. She pointed at a rusty and well-worn sign nailed to a tree a few yards ahead of her.

Sokka shrugged. "Don't worry about it Katara, like I said; this place is abandoned! Even if it were a privately owned property at one point, the previous owner obviously didn't care enough to keep it that way. It's practically like they're inviting trespassers! Er, I mean, adventuring, well-meant, respectable teenagers!"

Katara groaned and gave him a dirty look. "I don't even know why I try anymore." She folded her arms and her steps became shorter.

"It's okay Katara, we don't really know why you try either," Aang said, casting her a reassuring, unknowing smile. There were a few snickers from those who misinterpreted Aang's well wishes.

Katara rolled her eyes and turned away from them. In the far background of the series of trees, her eyes picked up movement. "Did you guys see that? I think it was a deer."

"Yeah, okay Katara. I thought you were smarter than that. You're gonna have to try a _little_ harder than that to scare us," Sokka said, dismissing her comment with a chuckle.

"What? No, I really saw something."

"Come on Katara, we were just talking about this last week. How the city had to kill off all the deer in this park due to some illness," Aang said.

Katara glanced back at him, realization hitting her. She nodded, and pondered quietly what it was she had seen.

A few short minutes later, they came to a metal chain link fence that stood six feet high, and was topped with barbed wire. It was badly rusted, and the bottom of the fence curled a foot off the ground, like fence itself was trying not to touch the ground.

"Do you think it's electric?" Aang asked.

"It's not, well, it shouldn't be," Sokka said, uncertain. "Well it wasn't the last time I was here."

"Well, this was your idea. I think you should be the one to test it out," Toph said.

"It doesn't matter if it's electric, only the top wire would sho-" Zuko began, before Katara jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

"That's a good question Aang," she said, and Aang smiled proudly. "And Toph brings up a point. If it _is_ electric and has the potential to shock us, you should be the one to test it out. It was your idea to bring us here, after all."

Worry crossed Aang's face. "Isn't there some way to tell if a fence is electric before touching it and risking injury?" Aang asked.

"Nope, no way. the only way to tell is if you touch it," Katara said quickly. Zuko came to realization of her game and stifled a chuckle.

"I can do a quick google search," Suki offered, pulling out her smart phone. Zuko put his hand over the screen. "No, Katara's right. It's the only way."

"Guess this is your time to shine Sparks," Toph said, smiling deviously.

Sokka looked at the fence weakly.

"Come on, I've done it before, it doesn't even hurt," Zuko said.

Sokka inched closer to the fence and took an overdramatic gulp. He raised his hand and moved it for the fence. Aang bit his lip worriedly and Zuko became increasingly agitated.

"If you won't do it, I WILL!" He exclaimed, and stormed to the fence.

"No!" Sokka shouted and pushed him back. He grabbed the fence purposely and was greeted by no sensation other than the cold feel of the metal and some rust residue on his hand.

There was a collective sigh of relief between Suki, Aang, and Sokka. He removed his hand and rubbed it on his t shirt. "Yep. Handled like a true man." He flexed, Suki giggled, and everyone else groaned.

"Great, let's keep moving. That barbed wire at the top is going to hurt, looks like we're going to have to crawl," Zuko said.

Toph groaned.

"It's okay Toph, I'll help you out," Zuko said.

"Yay me," she grumbled.

Zuko held the fence up for everyone as they crawled through, one by one. Suki helped Toph from the other side, gently holding her wrists to lead her through. As Zuko made his way through, Katara did her best to try to hold the fence for him, but it proved to be little help from this side. She gave up as he was just about through and he let out a yelp and darted out from the fence as she let go.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" She said, helping him onto his feet.

"Don't worry about it. I don't think it was your fault."

"What happened?" Aang asked.

"I let go of the fence and it snapped back and poked Zuko!" Katara said, embarrassed.

"Really, you're fine. I think it was just because of how tall I am, not you letting go. Anyways, let's keep going."

They continued forward, and now the lack of life was impossible to ignore, the woods were awfully thin now, with less half as many trees as there were before, and no underbrush. Grass wasn't blanketing the ground either, but instead poked up in small blades of yellow and tan.

"This doesn't look abandoned to me," Aang said, noting a large coil of rope underneath a tall tree that didn't look used or weathered.

"Hey! Look, there it is! What I was telling you guys about! Right over there!" Sokka pointed excitedly at a large building not too far away.

"Finally. I was beginning to wonder if you were making it all up," Zuko said.

Sokka was grinning from ear to ear, "It's like we're the ghost busters, seeking out the undead and being super cool!"

"Did you even see the movie?" Zuko asked, his irritation impossible to hide anymore.

" _No,_ but I don't have to be stupid to know what it's about."

"That doesn't-" Suki interjected Zuko's comment.

"Hey, we've been walking forever, and I'm actually pretty excited now! Can we stop this pointless arguing and race each other there?" she said, grinning.

"Last one there has to sign up for pep club with me!" Aang called out, and began running.


	2. 2 - Separated

Zuko quickly placed Toph on his back as everyone began running. The group laughed and whooped as their feet carried them with great speed across the ground. Breath escaped their lungs with sharp heaves as their out-of-shape bodies tried to keep up with their spirits.

When he finally reached the building Sokka slapped his hand against a wall; followed by the rest of the group. Their hands made no sound as they came into contact with the stone that the building was composed of. Sokka pulled his hand off the building and raised a closed fist in the air victoriously.

"Who's joining the pep club with me?" Aang asked eagerly.

"I wasn't really paying attention," Zuko lied, knowing full well he had been last.

Aang's expression fell slightly. "Oh."

Katara cast him a sympathetic smile. "It's okay Aang, you have lots of friends that already go to pep club."

"I suppose you're right," he said with a half smile.

The group walked around to the opposite wall of the building without much purpose. There was a large, open door way that showed off a dark, empty interior. The building looked like a cross between a barn and prison, like it was supposed to house large farm machinery; but was currently vacant.

They all stood at the entrance, waiting for someone to take the first step inside.

"This doesn't look like anything too interesting, let's move on," Zuko said.

"Sokka, this building doesn't look old, it actually looks relatively new...are you sure we should be doing this?" Suki said, running her hand along the bumps and indents of a stone brick. It was sturdy, and showed very little signs of deterioration. Suki's hand ran over a patch of moss that came off on her palm. She cringed and quickly retracted her hand to rub the moss off on her leg.

"Of course I'm sure! We've already been over this. Come on, let's go." He took her hand and squeezed it.

They turned away from the building, and before them the woods had grown back to a slightly denser version than what they had originally started their trek in. In between trees and vegetation, corners of other buildings poked into view.

They all sub consciously fell into a line and entered the woods, Sokka the head and Zuko the caboose of their ensemble. Zuko held onto Toph's backpack, which her mother insisted on her carrying at all times. He followed Toph and stepped past the imaginary line where the woods began to grow freely, and a loud bang sounded from behind him.

Toph jumped and everyone's heads whipped back towards the building. The once ajar door leading into it was now shut, sending fear into their hearts.

Behind Sokka, Katara quickly turned back around and pushed him. "Go go go," she began muttering, awakening them from their paralysis. As Sokka's mind began to register, her words became more insistent, and everyone began to panic. They all finally unstuck their feet from their firm plant on the ground and rushed forward in an aimless run.

Sokka reached past Katara, grabbed Suki's wrist tightly and ran without thought. Suki stumbled behind him as her feet struggled to keep up and plants whipped her face and grabbed her hair. Thorns and branches scratched their legs and caused them to lose their footing a few times. Finally, their aimless trek came to a stop at a small house with a flimsy picket fence around what was once probably a well-kept yard, now just as wild as the surrounding woods.

They paused a moment, taking deep breaths that pushed and pulled their chests. Suki turned away from the house and back where they had came. The only thing that lay before her was an endless stretch of woods.

"Where is everyone?" She asked Sokka.

He turned, and frowned. "I guess everyone split when we took off."

As he finished his statement, a quiet hiss sounded above them, and the sky grew dark. They looked up, and large water droplets fell on their face. Within moments, dark clouds had covered the skies and thunder growled in the distance. The echoes following the clap of thunder brought more intense rain along with it.

"Let's get inside!" Suki yelled above the rain. She pointed to the house-like structure and Sokka nodded.

He ran and attempted to clear the fence, until his foot caught the top of the fence and several wood pieces crumpled to the ground with a crack. He nearly caught himself as he landed and turned to Suki, who only gestured him to keep going.

After Suki had cleared the fence behind him they approached the front door. Sokka grabbed the handle and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"It won't open!" He shouted.

She pushed him aside and took a step back. With a loud cry, she kicked the door, and it swung open as if it had never been shut. They rushed inside and Sokka shut the door behind him. Suki looked at the door, and wondered for a moment why he couldn't get the door open even though it felt as if it were unlocked when she kicked it open.

She wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to warm up. In the short while she had been out in the rain, she had become soaked, and her wet, cold, clothes chilled her down to the bone. Sokka wasn't faring any better, so he decided to take off his shirt and wring it out.

The inside of the house-like structure was somewhat small, and had no sources of light besides a few unlit candles. It was decorated like a church, with four small benches facing a podium and crucifix.

They stood in silence for a few moments while Sokka attempted to rid his shirt of water. The storm thundered over their heads, each raindrop sounding like a gunshot on the metal roof above them.

Suki walked over to a window that looked over the way they came. The trees danced wildly as the wind from the storm through them about.

"Do you think whoever it was that shut that door is going to come looking for us?" Suki asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it was just the wind that shut it or something," he offered.

She turned to him. "I don't feel safe. I'm scared."

A look of sympathy crossed his face. "Hey, it'll be okay. We'll just wait for this storm to blow over, and then we'll head back home."

"What about everyone else? They'll notice we're missing, what are they going to do?"

"They'll be fine. Suki, there's no need to be worried, I'm here," He slung his shirt over his shoulder and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her forehead lightly, trying to comfort her.

Just then, there was what sounded like knocking at the door.

Suki's breath caught and she wrapped her arms tightly around him. "Sokka..."

"I heard it too," he said quietly.

"What was it?" She hissed.

"It was probably just the storm. Maybe a branch or something just hit the door." He could feel Suki trembling against his body and he squeezed her tight in a hug. "I'm going to go check...just to be sure."

"No! No Sokka, don't," Suki pleaded, wrapping her arms around him ever tighter.

"Listen, what if it's Katara or Zuko or someone...I'm going to go see, and you can stay right behind me, alright?"

She nodded and unlatched herself from him. Sokka took a deep breath and started towards the door when another set of knocks sounded.

 _Knock knock knock knock_ They were faster and louder than before. Sokka felt his heart stop for a moment, and his fingertips went numb. He swore in his head and grabbed the handle. He swung the door open to find Aang standing before him. He was shivering, and his clothes hung from his small frame like robes due to the weight of the water in them.

"Sokka, Suki!" He cried out. He darted inside and Sokka shut the door behind him.

Suki let out a cry of relief and hugged him. "It's you! Where's everyone else? Are they in shelter?"

"I don't know! I thought I was going to be lost by myself out here! I'm so relieved!" Aang smiled gratefully at her, and appeared to be in pretty rough shape from the mud stains on his clothes.

"How did you know to knock? Did you know someone was here?" Sokka asked.

"What? No...I just don't think it's very polite to enter someone's house without knocking first," Aang said bashfully. He glanced around the room they were in and said, "Although, I don't think this is a house. This is a church!" He pointed to the crucifix at one end of the room.

"We broke into a church?" Suki whispered, and placed a hand over her mouth.

"An _abandoned_ church. No one's been around this area in a long time," Sokka said. "We're completely alone. All that we can do right now is wait for the storm to blow over, okay?"

Suki nodded.

"But what about everyone else?" Aang asked. "Is it just you two here?"

Suki nodded. "We don't know where everyone else is."

"Don't you think we should maybe go look for them?" Aang asked.

"No way! We could get sick wandering around in the rain like that. We really need to just stay put until it's safe to head back home," Sokka said.

"I guess you make a valid point," Aang said. He spotted a candle in a windowsill on the other side of the room, so he picked it up and produced a box of matches from his pants pocket.

"You carry matches with you?" Sokka asked.

"Not usually, but when I heard we were going into the woods, I thought they might come through if you didn't," Aang said with a playful smirk.

"Gee, thanks," Sokka said, rolling his eyes.

To Aang's relief, the box didn't get wet while in his pocket, so he lit a match and then lit the candle. He grabbed a bench and dragged it over to where Sokka and Suki stood, then sat down on it as he held the candle close to himself.

Suki and Sokka sat on both sides of him and the three huddled closed together for warmth. Nothing was said, and there was a quiet, fearful energy around them. They were all but helpless as they sat in an abandoned church, in the middle of what could be endless woods, during a thunderstorm.

Aang's thoughts took no time drifting to worry. He had no idea where Katara was, and he could only hope she was safe, dry, and with someone. He briefly imagined her trying to take shelter under a tree, shivering and soaking, mud staining her clothes. He knew this endeavor into the unknown with Sokka as their guide was a bad idea; and he only wished he had said something more.


	3. 3 - Lost

Hello! Would you look at that, an update!

Got a bit of inspiration and atla feels, so I thought I'd work on this story. Hopefully this bit of energy continues and I can actually finish this fic! I think it's going to be around 10 or 15 chapters total, but they'll probably be short like this one.

I hope you like it!

* * *

Katara pulled herself out of the dirt and dead leaves that clung to her body. She had no recollection of where she was or how she got down on the ground. Her head was pounding, and her entire body ached. She turned her head and scanned her surroundings as she slowly rose to her feet. The air was ice cold, and her skin prickled. She wrapped her arms around herself and with her left hand, felt something warm and wet on her right arm. She pulled her hand away to find her fingers were covered in blood.

Her breath caught, and as the blood began to trail down her arm and drip from her nails, she let out a scream. Her heart was beating fast, her mind racing faster. She turned and examined her arm to find blood and meat caking her arm and back. She felt as if she were about to throw up.

She spotted a stream nearby and ran to it. She threw her hand into the cool water and washed the blood away. She cupped some water in the same hand and threw it onto her bloodied arm. She tried her best to clean off the gore, but the more she scrubbed the more she felt as if she were going to be sick.

After a while she decided she couldn't keep it up, and turned away from the stream. She dry heaved until mucus dribbled down her chin. Her forehead was burning and she wiped away the mucus with tears stinging her eyes. She took a moment to regain herself and dry her eyes before she decided to try to get moving.

Ahead of her, however, was nothing but a long stretch of woods. She decided to follow the current of the stream, in hopes that she'd reach the body it pooled into or a sign of civilization along the way.

She suddenly remembered her phone, and pulled it out of her pocket. She pressed the bower button, but her screen merely flickered briefly before going black.

"That's odd," she said to herself. She flipped the phone over and opened up the back. She thought she might try to pull out the battery and then place it back in.

To her horror, in place of where the battery should be, a massive pile of fire ants swarmed and crawled. After the back was completely removed, they started moving quickly; almost angrily.

She screeched and dropped her phone as the ants began to crawl up her arm. She felt burns and stings on her arm as the insects furiously marched up her arm. She shook and squirmed in an attempt to get them off. She slapped her arm and felt more bites across her chest, upper back, neck, and stomach.

No matter what she did, the bites continued and her skin crawled with an army of red.

She left all reason behind and began running. Her adrenaline pushed her forward, faster, until she happened across a decent sized lake which she jumped into without thought. She stayed under water, holding her breath, for a few moments. She pushed herself upward and out of the water.

The burns across her skin cooled with the icy touch of the water. She waded her way to shore, and dragged herself out of the lake. Her muscles hurt like nothing before, her heart pounded like it just might burst, and she was soaking wet.

"Sokka, when I find you, I'm going to murder you," she grumbled into the rock beneath her.

Behind her, from far away, she heard a shout. She quickly sat up and looked behind her to see figure on the other side of the lake. Thinking it might be one of her friends; she raised her hands up and began to yell, "Hey! Hey! It's me, Katara!"

After she yelled out to the figure, it burst into a run. It began to run around the edge of the lake, towards her.

For a moment, she was delighted and jumped onto her feet. But as the figure continued moving, she noticed it held something long and straight in its hands. It moved not with joyful glee, but intimidating, vicious excitement.

She soon registered that this _thing,_ for her brain had not decided this figure was a human; was running at speeds faster than any human. It was not coming to greet her, but to attack her. She turned around and began sprinting, much to the protests of every muscle in her body.

Trees flew by, bushes and vines scratched and grabbed her exposed legs from her shorts. Tears from fear stung her eyes and blurred her vision, and her lungs screamed with every intake of breath. She pressed still further on, and dared one look behind her.

The figure was now incredibly close, and wielding a hatchet. It's limbs were disfigured, with legs longer than they need be, and arms that bulged with muscle but reached less than halfway to the ground. She didn't get a good look at its head or face, but was able to see rust-colored stained canine teeth.

This pressed her farther onward, and spotted what looked like a small building on the horizon. Still as she ran, she could hear the footsteps of the creature getting closer and heavier. She ran straight forward, focusing all her attention on the building ahead. Her breaths came out in heaves, but she still mustered enough breath to let out a scream, in hopes that there was human life inside the building.


End file.
